How to get a Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Playstation 2 Lara save icon file as a base model for a new papercraft Tomb Raider vignette

Did you know that the Japanese title for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness ("トゥームレイダー美しき逃亡者") translates to "The Beautiful Fugitive"? Which is a much more fitting description of course. 😉

This sixth installment of Lara's adventures was created as the first 'next-gen' Tomb Raider game, with much more detailed graphics and character models, including Lara. It was however the last Tomb Raider game made by Core Design, the developer that created the classic ones too that make such nice little papercraft vignettes.

I played The Angel of Darkness on the Playstation 2, and maybe not a lot of people know this, but there's actually a cute little Lara that strolls about on your Memory Card when you save the game:

It's a much simpler character model than the in-game one of course, which makes that she'd fit perfectly with the simple style of the my other Core Design vignettes!

So I used the PS2 Save Builder 0.8x (running as Administrator in Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode on my 64-bit Windows 10 system) to extract the save icon from a Code Breaker *.cbs save file (simply click the "static.ico" and choose "Extract"). Then you can use the PS2 Icon Importer/Exporter 0.8 plugin by Vector to open the save icon model in Milkshape 3D 1.8.2 and save it to a more common 3D file format (changing the file extension to *.icn or choosing "all files" when trying to import it).

Tools used:
 - PS2 Save Builder 0.8x: https://www.ps2savetools.com/download/ps2-save-builder/
 - PS2 Icon Importer/Exporter 0.8 plugin for Milkshape 3D: https://www.ps2savetools.com/download/milkshape-ps2-icon-importer-exporter/
 - Milkshape 3D 1.8.2: http://www.milkshape3d.com/

And now I have a nice little low-poly Angel of Darkness Lara as a base model for a new papercraft Tomb Raider vignette! And of course I'll make a fitting stand for her too. 😉 Stay tuned!

(although in this case there are not a lot of steps, I still combined them into one image to make it easier to save)

Another papercraft done! Free hand drawn papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft release.

Another papercraft done! This one was made entirely hand drawn, which was fun to do for a change again. 🚀

I also really like the colour: usually on my hand drawn Star Trek papercrafts I used aquarel water colors, but this time I used a "cool grey" Promarker. I remember reading once that Star Trek ships have a "duck egg blue" tint, but I like this light gray tone that it has after scanning the hand drawn parts and printing them again for the papercraft.

Download + build your own free papercraft Galileo 5 shuttlecraft:

https://ninjatoes.wordpress.com/category/star-trek/

Have fun building!

Yet another quick papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft update

Another quick update on the papercraft Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft I'm working on: the second (right sized😁) test build was still a bit tricky in some spots, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. 😊

So I finalized the lines with a black  fineliner and colored the parts with my Promarkers (sometimes I use aquarel colors for that, but this time I wanted them to be a "cool grey") so I can start making the final templates:

And you guessed it: then I will build it again! 😁 To have a final version of course, but also so that I can take pictures to make instructions. Stay tuned!

First Star Trek V Galileo 5 shuttlecraft test build

The Galileo 5 test build went together pretty well! There are a few places where the parts were pretty tight, but with a bit of extra care they turned out okay. I like how the impulse engines, warp nacelles and overall shape turned out, there's only one problem:

...I somehow managed to print it in the wrong size!

It's not that big a deal really and I decided to build it anyway; if the parts fit at this size, they still fit when I print them at the correct size of course. The only thing is, that I can't really transfer any fixes 1:1 to my hand drawn papercraft parts...

So... I will do another test build with the lessons learned from this one, and this time in the correct size (hopefully 😉).

Stay tuned!

free papercraft RMS Mauretania

Thanadol asked me to share his latest papercraft with you guys again: when the ocean liner RMS Mauretania was launched in 1906, it was the biggest ship in the world! Luckily, Thanadol made his papercraft version in a scale of 1/1000, so it will easily fit on your desk or shelf in your home. 😉

Download + build your own free papercraft RMS Mauretania (by Thanadol):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ZrJ0Vybj93qZj1Vnyxjr7X2oZPLIWbl/view

free 2019 papercraft gift containers (from wild boars to Christmas trees ;o)

After flowers, fruit and pop-up cards, now Sasatoku's 2019 papercraft series is coming to an end as well and of course December's small seasonal papercraft gift container is Christmas themed. 🎄

I wonder if they'll make another papercraft series in 2020 and what it will be...? 😊

Download + build your own free papercraft gift containers (+lots more, by Sasatoku):
https://www.sasatoku.co.jp/html/papercraft/

Papercraft Star Trek Galileo 5 working model done

This is pretty much how far I'll take the working model for the papercraft Galileo 5 shuttlecraft. As you can see, the working model is actually missing one side, but as I explained before for paper models like this I mirror the necessary parts on the templates so I can make sure they'll be more symmetrical than if I were to draw them by hand separately. 😇

So now I've got some first test templates that I can use to see if the paper model will go together the way I planned, so next thing will be to do a real test build.

Stay tuned!